We went to the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham tonight to see our favourite symphony orchestra, The Hallé Orchestra, based in Manchester.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. Yawn – how boring. But let me tell you, it’s anything but. Read on.

Everyone of you at some time has listened to and been inspired by the sound of a full orchestra. You do it almost subconsciously, every time you go to the cinema. And you will connect in some way with the music, whether it makes you smile, cry or makes your heart race with anticipation, fear or excitement. Don’t believe me? Take the short quiz at the end of this review.

My own journey with orchestral music harks back to my first year in junior school – I must have been seven? But that’s another story. Our first encounter with the Hallé was quite a while back – we were reading through our Nottingham Theatre Royal brochure that we receive periodically and there was an advert for the Hallé playing music from James Bond. Well, we are absolute James Bond fanatics so we booked it, and we were treated to two exciting hours of iconic Bond themes, like Goldfinger, Moonraker, You Only Live Twice, From Russia With Love, and many more – it was nothing short of amazing. And nothing like listening to a stereo – the music totally envelops and submerses you, wall to wall.

Anyway, after the Bond concert we were hooked. In between performing classical pieces, which I admit I have never been to, the Hallé often put on movie music concerts, which are right up our street. We’ve been to their Sci-Fi movies, and I can thoroughly recommend their John Williams vs Hans Zimmer concert – I know John Williams well but I hadn’t heard of Hans Zimmer. But I HAD heard his music many times and hadn’t even known it!

Tonight’s performance was “Action Movies” and the first set started with the familiar rousing classic of “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” (yes, they really ARE classics now!) . And that was enough to get the goosebumps started.

Two things always strike me when watching an orchestra. The first thing, is that you don’t really appreciate what goes into a piece of music until you see it broken down in front of you, and you realise that one part of the music is being created by a bank of violins, their bows moving up and down in perfect unison, or a solo cello playing a haunting melody, or EIGHT double basses filling the auditorium with their low throbbing tones. It’s fascinating for me to see the music grow and come together homogenously from some eighty plus individual musical instruments all playing in perfect synchronicity.

The second thing that immediately hits you is that the music is exactly, and i mean EXACTLY the same as if you were listening to a CD. And it shouldn’t really be a surprise, because the Hallé are up there in the list of top class world orchestras, but you always assume that a live performance is bound to be somewhat less than a recorded and remixed version. Yet then, I suppose if you consider that it’s exactly this kind of orchestra creating the music from some wonderful scores in the first place, then it just shows the skill and talent involved in flawlessly recreating the music in front of a live audience.

I’m not a musician. But I do appreciate music. And I appreciate much more now what goes into making a movie come to life, thanks to seeing it played out on stage. Of course, you have to give full credit to the composer that puts those notes to paper – it mesmerises me how a person can imagine all of those sounds and turn that into a physical score. But you still have to hand it to those musicians that take that score and transform it back into the composer’s creation for everyone to hear.

You can see the full set list in the photo below – there were a couple of pieces that I didn’t really know, which is fine, and then there are some iconic stuff that really makes the hairs stand on end.

My favourite of the night? Well I had a couple from the list above – The Dark Knight is haunting, I love the unmistakable Spanish essence of the The Mask of Zorro, but one that always gets me excited is the unmistakeable opening notes to “Mission Impossible” – which incidentally was one of the more recent arrangements from the Tom Cruise movies rather than the original piece. You only have to hear those first four notes, and you just know exactly what’s coming.

Interesting fact – Did you know that the main rhythm which consists of two long notes followed by two short notes ( try humming it) is actually Morse Code for M.I. ?

The orchestra is often (but not always) conducted by Stephen Bell, who is one of the most animated conductors we’ve seen. Not meaning to be rude, but I’ve never been sure what a conductor is for and whether the orchestra could manage just fine without one, or whether this almost ritual dance on the podium in the front of stage is absolutely vital to the performance – I once was asked to conduct an RAF band at school and I stood there waving a baton in 4/4 time to the music, knowing that the band were really paying no attention at all to me.

But I do know Stephen’s personality adds immensely to the whole experience, and I would love to be able to sit and chat with him for a hour one day and ask him that exact question – and I’m sure he would put me straight! Honestly, for me, the Hallé isn’t complete without Stephen front and centre.

I spend a lot of time trying to convince my friends that they need to experience a live orchestra, and if you too are a little intrigued but not into classical music per say, one of the Hallé’s movie concerts is exactly what you should be going to see / hear. I guarantee it will not be your last.

For a list of their forthcoming concerts, visit halle.co.uk

We can’t wait to see what they will be performing next!

Now, you might say you don’t know much about orchestral or instrumental music as its also known, but I personally believe you know much more than you think. Click here for a little fun movie music quiz to prove it to you. Let us know your score!

Rob & Sue.